Beyond the range of conceptions
Let us gain the center.
And there hold fast without violence,
Fed from an inexhaustible supply.

Like a water-wheel awhirl,
Like the rolling of a pearl;
Yet these but illustrate,
To fools, the final state.

The earth's great axis spinning on,
The never-resting pole of sky
Let us resolve their Whence and Why,
And blend with all things into One;

Beyond the bounds of thought and dream,
Circling the vastly void as spheres
Those orbits round a thousand years:
Behold the Key that fits my theme.

Rank and wealth within the mind abide,
Then gilded dust is all your yellow gold.
Kings in their fretted palaces grow old;
Youth dwells forever at Contentment's side.
A mist cloud hanging at the river's brim,
Pink almond flowers along the purple bough,
A hut rose-girdled under moon-swept skies,
A painted bridge half-seen in shadows dim,
These are the splendors of the poor, and thou,
0 wine of spring, the vintage of the wise.